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mo  IRefuge  but  in 
^rutb 


6olt)Win  Smitb 

(Seconli  EMtton,  Enlarges) 


(5.  p.  Putnam's  Sons 

1Rew  J!?orl?  an&  UonSon 

■Cbe    HtnlclJerbocher    pre8» 

1909 


Copyright,  1907-1908 
(In  the  United  States) 

BY    THE 

SUN  PRINTING  AND  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Copyright,  Canada,  1908 

BY 

GOLDWIN  SMITH 


Copyright,  iqog 
(In  the  United  States) 

BY 

GOLDWIN  SMITH 


Entered  at  Statiunf.rs'   Hall,    London,   England 


PREFACE 

THE  letters  collected  in  this  volume 
appeared,  with  others,  in  the 
New  York  Sun,  to  the  Editor  of  which 
the  thanks  of  the  writer  for  his  courtesy 
are  due. 

Appended  is  a  paper  on  the  same 
subjects  commenting  on  one  by  the 
late  Mr.  Chamberlain,  since  published 
in  the  North  American  Review.  To  the 
Editor  of  the  North  American  Review 
also  the  writer's  acknowledgments  are 
due. 

There  appeared  to  be  sufficient  in- 
terest in  the  discussion  to  call  for  the 
publication  of  a  small  edition. 


iv  preface 

The  age  calls  for  religious  truth. 
Nine  thousand  persons  communicated 
their  cravings  to  the  Editor  of  the 
London  Daily  Telegraph.  By  their 
side  the  present  writer  places  himself, 
not  a  teacher,  but  an  inquirer,  seeking 
for  truth  and  open  to  conviction. 

The  position  of  the  clergy,  especially 
where  tests  are  stringent,  calls  for  our 
utmost  consideration.  But  I  submit 
that  it  would  not  be  improved  by  any 
attempt,  such  as  seems  to  be  made  in  a 
work  of  great  ability  before  me,  to 
merge  the  theological  in  the  social 
question.  Benevolence  may  still  be  far 
below  the  Gospel  mark,  and  the  Christ- 
ian faith  may  suffer  from  its  default; 
but  the  increase  of  it  and  the  multipli- 
cation of  its  monuments  since  the  world 
has  been  comparatively  at  peace  can- 
not  be    denied;   while    of   the    distress 


preface  v 

which  still  calls  for  an  increase  of 
Christian  effort,  not  the  whole  is  due 
to  default  on  the  part  of  the  wealthier 
classes.  Idleness,  vice,  intemperance, 
improvident  marriage,  play  their  part. 
Let  us  not  be  led  away  upon  a  false 
issue. 

There  is  nothing  for  it  but  truth. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface    ......  iii 

Introduction    .....  i 

I.     Man  and  his  Destiny       .          .  7 

II.     New  Faith  Linked  WITH  Old    .  26 

III.  The  Scope  of  Evolution          .  :is 

IV.  The  Limit  of  Evolution           .  38 
V.     Explanations          ...  42 

VI.     The  Immortality  of  the  Soul  47 
VII.     Is  there  to  be  a  Revolution 

in  Ethics?  ....  52 

VIII.     The  God  of  the  Bible     .          .  55 

IX.     Conclusion     ....  61 

The  Religious  Situation  ...  67 


INTRODUCTION 

IT  is  impossible  to  read  current  litera- 
ture or  to  go  into  general  society 
without  seeing  that  religious  scepticism 
is  spreading.  The  scepticism  of  Vol- 
taire and  Rousseau  which  preceded  the 
French  Revolution  was  almost  killed 
by  the  Revolution  as  well  as  by  the 
moral  characters  and  social  sentiments 
of  its  professors.  With  the  return  of 
calm,  inquiry  recommenced,  and  is  now 
advancing  in  the  potent  forms  of  phys- 
ical science  and  literary  research,  the 
progress  of  which  is  shaking  the  edifice 
of  orthodox  Christianity  to  its  founda- 
tion.    The    progress    of    dissolution  by 


2  IRo  "Ketuge 

physical  science  has  been  so  rapid  that 
in  that  quarter  a  complete  revolution 
has  taken  place  within  the  compass  of 
a  single  lifetime.  Sixty  years  ago  pro- 
fessors of  geology  were  still  struggling 
to  reconcile  science  with  Genesis.  Or- 
thodoxy is  now  struggling  to  reconcile 
Genesis  with  science.  But  literary  re- 
search and  criticism  have  also  wrought 
a  great  change.  There  lies  before  me 
the  private  correspondence  of  an  emi- 
nent member  of  the  clerical  order  who 
had  published  an  important  theological 
work  of  orthodox  character,  but  after- 
wards, it  seems,  was  brought  by  literary 
research  to  the  belief  that  the  first  three 
Gospels  were  grafts  upon  an  unknown 
stock. 

What  the  real  position  of  the  clergy 
is  it  would  be  very  hard  to  say.  They 
are  learned,  they  read,  they  meditate; 


JBut  in  Crutb  3 

many  of  them  must  by  nature  have 
open  minds.  But  they  are  bound,  if 
they  are  Anglicans  or  Protestants,  by 
tests.  Papacy  of  course  requires  total 
renunciation  of  the  right  and  duty  of 
inquiry,  as  Jesuitism  does  of  loyalty  to 
truth.  One  consequence  of  the  present 
distraction  is  not  unlikely  to  be  a  rush 
of  despair  into  a  Church  which  pretends 
to  infallibility  and  supersedes  con- 
science. It  is  impossible  to  imagine 
that  men  of  intellect  and  culture,  men 
who  think  and  whose  ears  are  open, 
though  they  may  belong  to  a  clerical 
order,  can  believe  all  that  those  in  Holy 
Orders  are  ostensibly  bound  to  uphold, 
all  the  miracles,  all  the  creeds,  among 
them  the  Athanasian  Creed  which  con- 
signs to  eternal  perdition  whoever  doubts 
that  of  two  co-eternal  beings  one  pro- 
ceeded  from  the  other.     Much  of  the 


4  IRo  TRcfugc 

Protestant  dogma,  Predestination,  for 
example,  is  the  heritage  of  the  great 
struggle  of  the  Reformation,  which  as- 
sumed a  political  form  and  required 
tests  as  the  bonds  and  watchwords  of 
the  contending  hosts.  It  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  all  of  a  certain  nation 
could  be  by  conviction  Anglicans,  all 
of  another  nation  or  province  Cal- 
vinists  or  Lutherans. 

Accurately  to  measure  the  extent 
to  which  scepticism  prevails  is  of  course 
impossible.  Orthodoxy  has  still  social 
hold  enough  to  exert  a  good  deal  of 
suppression.  Political  motives  also 
come  in.  There  is  fear  of  disturbing 
what  is  supposed  to  be  and  probably  has 
to  a  considerable  extent  been  a  secur- 
ity for  social  order.  I  have  seen  this 
feeling  carried  to  the  extent  of  the 
building  of  a  church  by  one  whom   I 


asut  In  a;rutb  S 

knew  to  be  a  most  pronounced  unbe- 
liever. Nor  is  the  fear  of  social  dis- 
turbance which  imposes  reticence,  if  not 
hypocrisy,  unfounded.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  belief  in  the  present 
state  of  things  as  a  divine  ordinance, 
and  in  future  retribution,  dim  as  it  may 
have  been,  has  had  considerable  influ- 
ence in  reconciling  the  suffering  classes 
to  the  present  order  of  things. 

Among  the  symptoms  of  religious 
disintegration  may  be  reckoned  the 
growth  of  eccentric  sects.  A  sign  of 
the  general  disturbance  as  well  as  of 
the  craving  for  sorriething  supernatural 
is  the  growth  of  such  movements  as 
Spiritualism,  planchette,  table-turning, 
and  other  mystical  fancies  of  that  kind. 
I  have  seen  Spiritualism  really  em- 
braced, and  by  people  of  no  mean 
intellect,   as  a  religion. 


6  "Ko  HcfixQe  but  in  Girutb 

Now  on  many  sides  is  heard  a  cry 
for  assurance  of  truth.  Thousands 
raised  that  cry  through  one  English 
journal.  I  take  my  stand  at  their  side 
as  an  inquirer,  and  one  seeking  to  be 
taught,  not  a  teacher;  anxious,  as  they 
are,  for  light;  open,  as  I  doubt  not  they 
are,  to  conviction.  I  believe  in  Christ- 
ian morality  and  spiritual  life  apart 
from  any  special  code  of  doctrine  or 
ecclesiastical  institution.  Like  my  late 
friend  Mr.  David  Chamberlain  I  con- 
tinue to  attend  a  church  as  a  centre  of 
Christian  communion.  Nothing,  I  trust, 
in  my  writings  on  this  momentous 
subject  will  ever  be  found  irreverent. 
Freedom  of  expression  the  time  requires. 


/IDan,  anb  bis  Destiny 

TIME  has  passed  since  I  first  sought 
access  to  the  columns  of  The  Sun, 
ranging  myself  with  the  nine  thousand 
who  in  an  English  journal  had  craved 
for  religious  light.  The  movement 
which  caused  that  craving  has  gone  on. 
The  Churches  show  their  sense  of  it. 
Even  in  that  of  Rome  there  is  a  growth 
of  "Modernism,"  as  it  is  called  by  the 
Pope,  who,  having  lost  his  mediaeval 
preservatives  of  unity,  strives  to  quell 
Modernism  by  denunciation.  Angli- 
canism resorts  to  a  grand  pageant  of 

uniformity,    beneath    which,    however, 
7 


8  "Mo  IRctugc 

lurk  Anglo-Catholicism,  Evangelicism, 
and  Liberalism,  by  no  means  uniform 
in  faith.  The  Protestant  Churches 
proper,  their  spirit  being  more  emo- 
tional, feel  the  doctrinal  movement 
less.  But  they  are  not  unmoved,  as 
they  show  by  relaxation  of  tests  and 
inclination  to  informal  if  not  formal 
union,  as  well  as  by  increasing  the 
aesthetic  and  social  attractions  of  their 
cult.  Wild  theosophic  sects  are  born 
and  die.  But  marked  is  the  increase 
of  scepticism,  avowed  and  unavowed. 
It  advances  probably  everywhere  in 
the  track  of  physical  science.  We  are 
confronted  with  the  vital  question  what 
the  world  would  be  without  religion, 
without  trust  in  Providence,  without 
hope  or  fear  of  a  hereafter.  Social  or- 
der is  threatened.  Classes  which  have 
hitherto    acquiesced    in    their    lot,    be- 


JBut  tn  ^rrutb  9 

lieving  that  it  was  a  divine  ordinance 
and  that  there  would  be  redress  and 
recompense  in  a  future  state,  are  now 
demanding  that  conditions  shall  be 
levelled  here.  The  nations  quake  with 
fear  of  change.  The  leaders  of  human- 
ity, some  think,  may  even  find  it 
necessary  to  make  up  by  an  increase  of 
the  powers  of  government  for  the  lost 
influence  of  religion. 

Belief  in  the  Bible  as  inspired  and 
God's  revelation  of  himself  to  man 
seems  hardly  to  linger  in  well-informed 
and  open  minds.  Criticism,  history, 
and  science  have  conspired  to  put  an 
end  to  it.  The  authorship  of  the 
greater  part,  including  the  most  im- 
portant books,  is  unknown.  The  mor- 
ality of  the  Old  Testament  differs  from 
that  of  the  New,  and  though  in  advance 
of  the  world  generally  in  those  days, 


lo  mo  "Refuge 

in  more  places  than  one,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  slaughter  of  the  Canaanites, 
shocks  us  now.  There  are  errors,  too, 
in  the  Old  Testament  of  a  physical 
kind,  such  as  those  in  the  account  of 
creation  and  the  belief  in  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  sun.  Of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  most  important  books,  the 
first  three  Gospels,  our  main  authorities 
for  the  life  of  Christ,  are  manifestly 
grafts  upon  a  stock  of  unknown  author- 
ship and  date.  They  betray  a  belief 
in  diabolical  possession,  a  local  super- 
stition from  which  the  author  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  who  evidently  was 
not  a  Palestinian  Jew,  was  free.  There 
is  discrepancy  between  the  first  three 
Gospels  and  the  fourth,  notably  as  to 
the  day  and  consequent  significance 
of  Christ's  celebration  of  the  Passover. 
It  is  incredible   that   God  in  revealing 


aSut  in  Crutb  n 

himself  to  man  should  have  allowed 
any  mark  of  human  error  to  appear 
in  the  revelation. 

We  have,  moreover,  to  ask  why  that 
on  which  the  world's  salvation  depended 
should  have  been  withheld  so  long  and 
communicated  to  so  few. 

There  remains  of  the  Old  Testament, 
besides  its  vast  historical  interest,  much 
that  morally  still  impresses  and  exalts 
us.  Of  the  New  Testament  there  re- 
mains the  moral  ideal  of  Christ,  our 
faith  in  which  no  uncertainty  as  to  the 
authors  of  the  narratives,  or  mistrust 
of  them  on  account  of  the  miracu- 
lous embellishment  common  in  biog- 
raphies of  saints,  need  materially  affect. 
The  moral  ideal  of  Christ  conquered 
the  ancient  world  when  the  Roman, 
mighty  in  character  as  well  as  in  arms, 
was  its  master.     It   has  lived  through 


12  IWo  IRetugc 

all  these  centuries,  all  their  revolutions 
and  convulsions,  the  usurpation,  tyr- 
anny, and  scandals  of  the  Papacy. 
The  most  doubtful  point  of  it,  con- 
sidered as  a  permanent  exemplar,  is  its 
tendency,  not  to  asceticism,  for  Christ 
came  "eating  and  drinking,"  but  to 
an  excessive  preference  for  poverty 
and  antipathy  to  wealth  which  would 
arrest  human  progress  and  kill  civil- 
isation. We  have,  however,  a  Nico- 
demus  and  a  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  as 
well  as  a  Dives  and  a  Lazarus.  Nothing 
points  to  a  Simeon  Stylites.  Self- 
denial,  though  not  asceticism  proper, 
is  a  necessary  part  of  the  life  of  a 
wandering  preacher,  which  also  pre- 
cludes the  exhibition  of  domestic  vir- 
tues. The  relation  of  Jesus  with  his 
family  seems  to  have  been  hardly 
domestic;   we    have   no   record   of   any 


Sut  in  ^rutb  13 

communication  between  him  and  Jo- 
seph. In  his  last  hour  he  provides  a 
retreat  for  his  mother. 

We  cannot  appeal  from  reason  to 
faith.  Faith  is  confidence,  and  for 
confidence  there  must  be  reason.  The 
faith  to  which  appeal  is  made  is  in 
fact  an  emotion  rather  than  an  intellec- 
tual conviction. 

But  apart  from  the  Bible,  have  we  any 
revelation  of  the  nature,  the  will,  the 
unity,  the  existence  of  deity?  It  must 
apparently  be  owned  that,  though  we 
tremble  at  the  thought,  we  have  none. 
We  are  left  upon  this  shore  of  time 
gazing  into  infinity  and  eternity  with- 
out clue  or  guidance  except  such  as  we 
can  gain  either  by  inspection  of  our 
own  nature  with  its  moral  indications 
and  promptings  or  by  studying  the 
order  of  the  universe. 


14  iWo  iRefuge 

We  find  in  man,  it  is  true,  a  natural 
belief  in  deity,  which  we  might  think 
was  implanted  by  his  Creator;  but  it  is 
not  found  in  all  men,  and  in  the  lower 
races  it  assumes  forms  often  so  low 
and  grotesque  that  we  cannot  imagine 
its  origin  to  have  been  divine.  Between 
the  God  of  the  Christian  and  the  god  of 
the  red  Indian  there  is,  saving  mere 
force,  no  affinity  whatever.  This  we 
must  frankly  own  to  ourselves.  The 
god  of  the  Mexican  demanded  human 
sacrifice. 

On  earth  the  creative  power  seems 
to  be,  as  it  were,  contending  against 
itself.  Good  of  every  kind  is  in  con- 
flict with  evil.  Slowly  and  fitfully, 
with  many  reverses,  good  seems  to 
prevail.  Humanity  as  a  whole  ad- 
vances, and  if  we  could  believe  in  its 
collective  advance  toward  an  ultimate 


JBut  In  Urutb  13 

perfection  which  all  who  have  con- 
tributed to  the  advance  should  share, 
we  might  have  a  solution  of  the  great 
problem.  But  of  this  we  have  no 
certain  assurance.  Multitudes  come 
into  being  who  to  progress  can  con- 
tribute nothing.  There  is  evil  of  all 
kinds  that  so  far  as  we  can  see  can  be 
followed  by  no  good  effect.  Plague 
and  famine,  with  a  great  part  of  the 
common  misfortunes  of  human  life, 
seem  merely  evil.  So,  plainly,  do  the 
sufferings  of  animals,  sometimes  on  a 
terrible  scale  and  apparently  quite 
useless.  As  long  as  effort,  even  painful, 
is  the  price  of  perfection  the  price  must 
be  paid  and  we  acquiesce.  But  in 
innumerable  cases  there  appears  to  be 
no  room  for  that  explanation.  The 
rocks  display  the  fossil  remains  of  whole 
races    of    primeval    animals    produced 


1 6  Wo  iRefuge 

apparently  only  to  become  extinct. 
Of  the  earth  itself,  man's  destined 
habitation,  large  portions  are  utterly 
uninhabitable.  The  legendary  war  be- 
tween the  powers  of  good  and  evil,  God 
and  Satan,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman,  was 
a  fable  naturally  devised,  though  the 
birth  of  the  two  powers  and  the  divi- 
sion of  existence  between  them  is  incon- 
ceivable. Can  anything  like  a  clear 
line  be  drawn  between  good  and  evil? 
Effort  and  resistance  to  temptation 
may  seem  necessary  ingredients  in  the 
formation  of  a  virtuous  character.  So 
far  we  may  think  we  have  the  clue. 
But  what  is  to  be  said  of  the  myriads  of 
cases  in  which  virtuous  effort  seems 
to  be  morally  impossible;  in  the  case, 
for  instance,  of  barbarous  or  corrupt 
and  depraved  tribes  or  nations  in  which 
general  example   is  evil?     What  is  to 


3But  tn  XTrutb  17 

be  said  of  deaths  in  infancy,  when  there 
has  been  no  time  for  character  to  be 
formed?  To  suppose  that  the  Creator 
could  not  have  helped  it,  that  this  was 
his  only  way  to  the  production  of 
virtuous  beings,  is  to  deny  his  omni- 
potence. A  Satan  with  horns  and 
hoofs,  struggling  against  the  power  of 
good,  used  to  be  the  solution  of  the 
problem,  but  belongs  to  the  simple 
religion  of  the  past. 

A  plan  of  which  we  are  ignorant,  but 
of  which  the  end  will  be  good,  is  ap- 
parently our  only  explanation  of  the 
mystery.  The  earth  is  beautiful;  we 
have  human  society  with  all  its  in- 
terests; we  have  friendship,  love,  and 
marriage;  we  have  art  and  music.  We 
m-ust  trust  that  the  power  which  will 
determine  the  future  reveals  itself  in 
these. 


1 8  "Mo  TRefugc 

The  belief  that  man  has  an  immortal 
soul  inserted  into  a  mortal  body  from 
which,  being,  as  Bishop  Butler  phrases 
it,  "indiscerptible,"  it  is  parted  at 
death,  has  become  untenable.  We  know 
that  man  is  one;  that  all  grows  and 
develops  together.  Imagination  can- 
not picture  a  disembodied  soul.  The 
spiritualist  apparitions  are  always 
corporeal. 

Free  will  surely  we  unquestionably 
have.  Necessarianism  seems  to  assume 
that  in  action  there  is  only  one  element, 
motive.  Reflection  appears  to  show 
that  there  are  two  elements,  motive 
and  will;  and  of  this  duality  we  seem 
to  be  sensible  when  we  waver  in  action 
or  feel  compunction  for  what  we  have 
done.  Is  it  possible  to  explain  moral 
repentance  or  morality  at  all  without 
assuming    the    freedom    of    the    will? 


JSut  tn  ^rutb  19 

Habit  may  enslave;  but  to  be  enslaved 
is  once  to  have  been  free. 

What  is  conscience?  When  we  re- 
pent morally  are  we  looking  only  to  the 
immediate  consequences  of  the  act  or 
are  we  also  looking  to  the  injury  done 
to  our  moral  nature?  If  the  latter, 
does  it  not  appear  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  us  not  material  and  pointing 
to  a  higher  life?  Much  of  us,  no  doubt, 
is  material.  Memory  and  imagination 
often  act  unbidden  by  the  will;  imagin- 
ation often  when  we  are  asleep.  We 
may  find  a  material  element  even  in  the 
character  as  moulded  by  physical  or 
social  circumstance  or  need.  But  is 
there  not  also  a  conscious  effort  of 
self-improvement  not  dependent  on 
these?  That  all  is  material,  nothing 
spiritual,  does  not  seem  yet  to  have 
been  proved. 


20  "Wo  IRefufle 

It  is  by  close  examination  of  our  own 
nature  and  its  workings,  perhaps,  that 
we  are  most  likely  to  solve  the  enigma 
of  our  being.  The  word  spiritual  surely 
has  a  meaning;  it  suggests  self-culture 
not  only  for  the  present  but  for  a  higher 
state. 

Evolution  is  a  great  discovery.  But 
evolution  cannot  have  evolved  itself, 
nor  does  there  seem  to  have  been  an 
observed  case  of  it.  Points  of  similarity 
between  the  ape  and  man  are  not  proofs 
of  transition.  Has  any  animal  given, 
like  man,  the  slightest  sign  of  self- 
improvement  or  conscious  tendency 
to  progress? 

The  putting  on  by  the  mortal  of 
immortality,  it  must  however  be  owned, 
bafifles  conception.  In  the  apologue  of 
Dives  and  Lazarus  the  dead  appear  still 
in  their  human  forms  and  talk  to  each 


JBut  in  trrutb  21 

other  across  the  gulf,  apparently  nar- 
row, which  divides  the  abode  of  the 
damned  from  that  of  the  blessed.  This 
clearly  is  the  work  of  imagination. 
Nor,  seeing  the  infinite  gradations  of 
character  and  the  frequent  mixture  of 
good  and  evil  in  the  same  man,  can  we 
understand  how  a  clear  line  can  be 
drawn  between  those  who  are  admitted 
to  heaven  and  those  who  are  condemned 
to  hell. 

Mere  difficulties  of  sense  or  intellect 
on  mundane  questions  might  be  met 
by  appeal  to  the  mysteries  of  a  universe 
which  may  conceivably  be  other  in 
reality  than  to  us  it  appears.  But  it  is 
to  be  supposed  that  divine  beneficence 
would  give  its  creatures  all  powers  of 
intelligence  necessary  to  their  moral 
welfare,  above  all  those  entailing  re- 
ward or  punishment  in  a  future  life. 


22  "Mo  iRefufle 

What  is  to  be  said  in  this  connection 
of  man's  aesthetic  nature,  of  his  sense 
of  beauty  and  melody?  Can  they  be 
the  offspring  of  material  evolution  ?  As 
they  meet  no  material  need,  we  might 
almost  take  them  for  the  smile  of  a 
beneficent  and  sympathising  spirit.  The 
basis  of  the  gifts  no  doubt  is  physical, 
but  we  cannot  easily  understand  how 
they  can  have  been  developed  by  a 
purely  physical  process. 

To  ghosts  and  apparitions  of  all  kinds, 
spiritualism  included,  we  bid  a  long 
farewell. 

We  turn  to  the  universe,  of  which 
while  we  believed  in  the  Incarnation 
our  earth  was  the  central  and  all-im- 
portant scene,  but  in  which  it  now  holds 
the  place  only  of  a  minor  planet.  We 
see  order  and  grandeur  inexpressible, 
but   with   some   apparent   signs   of  an 


3But  in  ITrutb  23 

opposite  kind:  the  conflagration  of  a 
star,  a  moon  bereft  of  atmosphere, 
errant  comets  and  aerolites.  In  our 
own  abode  we  have  variations  of 
weather,  apparently  accidental  and 
sometimes  noxious,  atmospheric  in- 
fluences which  beget  plagues,  ministers 
of  destruction  such  as  earthquakes  and 
volcanoes.  The  plan,  if  plan  there  is, 
transcends  our  sense  and  comprehension. 
Still,  be  it  ever  borne  in  mind,  of  the 
human  race,  progress,  moral  and  mental, 
is  the  unique  characteristic,  and  the 
one  which  suggests  a  divine  plan  to  be 
fulfilled  in  the  sum  of  things.  It  dis- 
tinguishes man  vitally  and  immeasurably 
from  all  other  creatures.  Fitful,  often 
arrested,  sometimes  reversed,  it  does 
not  cease.  It  may  point  to  an  ultimate 
solution  of  the  enigma  of  our  chequered 
being  such  as  shall   "justify  the  ways 


24  "Wo  TRefugc 

of  God  to  man."  This  may  be  still 
the  world's  childhood,  and  the  faith 
which  seems  to  be  collapsing  may  be 
only  that  of  the  child. 

Whatever  trouble,  moral,  social,  or 
political,  a  great  change  of  belief  may 
bring,  there  is  surely  nothing  for  it  but 
to  seek  and  embrace  the  truth.  What- 
ever may  become  of  our  creeds  and  of 
the  dogma,  so  plainly  human  in  its 
origin,  of  some  of  them,  we  have  still 
the  Christian  ideal  of  character,  which 
has  not  yet  been  seriously  challenged, 
does  not  depend  on  miracle  or  dogma 
for  its  claim  to  acceptance,  and  may 
continue  to  unite  Christendom. 

Superstition  can  be  of  no  use  morally ; 
even  politically  it  can  be  of  little  use 
and  not  for  long.  In  the  Christian 
ideal  we  still  have  a  rule  of  life.  Robin- 
son, the  good   Puritan   pastor,  taking. 


3But  in  ^rutb  25 

leave  of  the  members  of  his  flock,  who 
were  embarking  for  America,  bade  them 
not  confine  themselves  to  what  they 
had  learned  from  his  teaching,  but  to 
"be  ready  to  receive  whatever  truth 
might  be  made  known  to  them  from 
the  written  word  of  God."  If  there 
is  a  God,  are  not  all  truths,  scientific, 
historic,  or  critical,  as  much  as  anything 
written  in  the  Bible,  the  word  of  God? 


II 
•Wew  f  altb  Xinfte&  witb  ©l& 

APRE  ACHER  cites  a  lecture  of  mine, 
delivered  nearly  half  a  century 
ago,  a  part  of  which  has  had  the  honour 
of  being  embalmed  in  the  work  of  that 
most  eminent  theologian,  the  late  Dean 
Westcott,  on  The  Historic  Faith.  I 
turned  rather  nervously  to  the  lecture 
to  see  what  it  was  that  I  had  said.  Not 
that  I  should  have  been  much  shocked 
had  I  found  that  my  opinions  had  even 
been  completely  changed.  Since  that 
lecture  was  delivered  science  and  criti- 
cism have  wrought  a  revolution  in 
theological  belief,  likely,  as  it  appears 

to  me,  to  be  regarded  hereafter  as  the 
26 


•fto  "Refuge  but  in  Q;rutb  27 

most  momentous  revolution  in  history. 
With  the  whole  passage  cited  by  Dean 
Westcott  I  will  not  burden  the  columns 
of  The  Sun,  but  part  of  it  is  this: 

"The  type  of  character  set  forth  in 
the  Gospel  history  is  an  absolute  em- 
bodiment of  love,  both  in  the  way  of 
action  and  affection,  crowned  by  the 
highest  possible  exhibition  of  it  in  an 
act  of  the  most  transcendent  self- 
devotion  to  the  interest  of  the  human 
race.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  the  Christian  morality 
can  ever  be  brought  into  antagonism 
with  the  moral  progress  of  mankind; 
or  how  the  Christian  type  of  character 
can  ever  be  left  behind  by  the  course  of 
human  development,  lose  the  allegiance 
of  the  moral  world,  or  give  place  to 
newly  emerging  and  higher  ideals.  This 
type,  it  would   appear,  being    perfect, 


98  iRo  "Refuge 

will  be  final.  It  will  be  final  n^t  as 
precluding  future  history,  but  as  com- 
prehending it.  The  moral  efforts  of  all 
ages,  to  the  consummation  of  the  world, 
will  be  efforts  to  realise  this  character 
and  to  make  it  actually,  as  it  is  po- 
tentially, universal.  While  these  efforts 
are  being  carried  on  under  all  the 
various  circumstances  of  life  and  society, 
and  under  all  the  various  moral  and 
intellectual  conditions  attaching  to 
particular  men,  an  infinite  variety  of 
characters,  personal  and  national,  will 
be  produced;  a  variety  ranging  from 
the  highest  human  grandeur  down  to 
the  very  verge  of  the  grotesque.  But 
these  characters,  with  all  their  varia- 
tions, will  go  beyond  their  sources  and 
their  ideal  only  as  the  rays  of  light  go 
beyond  the  sun.  Humanity,  as  it 
passes    through   phase    after   phase    of 


JiSut  in  ^Trutb  29 

the  historical  movement,  may  advance 
indefinitely  in  excellence;  but  its  ad- 
vance will  be  an  indefinite  approxima- 
tion to  the  Christian  type.  A  divergence 
from  that  type,  to  whatever  extent  it 
may  take  place,  will  not  be  progress, 
but  debasement  and  corruption.  In 
a  moral  point  of  view,  in  short,  the 
world  may  abandon  Christianity,  but 
it  can  never  advance  beyond  it.  This 
is  not  a  matter  of  authority,  or  even  of 
revelation.  If  it  is  true,  it  is  a  matter 
of  reason  as  much  as  anything  in  the 
world." 

I  went  on  to  dwell  on  the  freedom  of 
the  Christian  type  of  character  as  em- 
bodied in  the  Founder  of  Christianity 
from  peculiarities  of  nation,  race,  or  sex 
which  might  have  derogated  from  its 
perfection  as  a  type  of  pure  humanity. 
In  those  days  I  believed  in  revelation. 


30  ifto  iRetuge 

But  my  argument  was  not  from  revela- 
tion, but  from  ethics  and  history.  The 
undertaking  of  Christianity  to  convert 
mankind  to  a  fraternal  and  purely  be- 
neficent type  of  character  and  enfold 
men  in  a  universal  brotherhood,  baflfied 
and  perverted  although  the  effort  has 
been  in  various  ways,  appears  to  have 
no  parallel  in  ethical  history.  There 
is  none  in  the  Greek  philosophers  or 
the  Roman  Stoics,  high  as  some  of  them 
may  soar  in  their  way.  Aristotle's 
ideal  man  is  perfect  in  its  statuesque 
fashion,  but  it  is  not  fraternal;  it  is 
not  even  philanthropic.  Nor  does  the 
Christian  character  or  the  effort  to 
create  it  depart  with  belief  in  dogma. 
Do  not  men  who  have  totally  renounced 
the  dogma  still  cultivate  a  character 
in  its  gentleness  and  benevolence  essen- 
tially Christian? 


J8ut  (n  G:rutb  31 

Theory,  I  have  none.  I  plead,  on  a 
footing  with  the  nine  thousand  corre- 
spondents of  the  Daily  Telegraph  of 
London,  for  thoroughgoing  allegiance 
to  the  truth,  emancipation  of  the  clerical 
intellect  from  tests,  and  comprehension 
in  the  inquiry  not  only  of  the  material 
but  of  the  higher  or  spiritual  nature  of 
man,  including  his  aspiration  to  progress, 
of  which  there  cannot  be  said  to  be  any 
visible  sign  in  brutes,  whatever  rudi- 
ments of  human  faculties  and  affec- 
tions they  may  otherwise  display.  But 
though  I  have  no  theory,  I  cannot  help 
having  a  conception,  and  my  present 
conception  of  the  historical  relation  of 
Christianity  and  its  Founder  to  hu- 
manity and  human  progress  does  not 
seem  to  me  to  be  so  different  from  what 
it  was  half  a  century  ago  as  when  I 
came  to  compare  the  two  I  expected 


32  Mo  IRefuge  but  (n  tlrutb 

to  find  it.  It  seems  to  me  still  that 
history  is  a  vast  struggle,  with  varying 
success,  toward  the  attainment  of  moral 
perfection,  of  which,  if  the  advent  of 
Christianity  furnished  the  true  ideal,  it 
may  be  deemed  in  a  certain  sense  a 
revelation.  Assuredly  it  may  if  in  this 
most  mysterious  world  there  is,  beneath 
all  the  conflict  of  good  with  evil,  a 
spirit  striving  towards  good  and  destined 
in  the  end  to  prevail.  If  there  is  not 
such  a  spirit,  if  all  is  matter  and  chance, 
we  can  only  say,  What  a  spectacle  is 
History ! 


Ill 
XTbe  Scope  ot  Bvolution 

IN  discussing  the  ground  of  ethical 
science  some  writers  appear  to  hold 
that  evolution  explains  all;  but  surely 
the  illustrious  discoverer  of  evolution 
never  carried  his  theory  beyond  the 
material  part  of  man.  He  never  pro- 
fessed to  trace  the  birth  of  ethics, 
idealisation,  science,  poetry,  art,  re- 
ligion, or  anything  spiritual  in  the 
anthropoid  ape.  There  is  here,  ap- 
parently, not  only  a  step  in  develop- 
ment but  a  saltus  mortalis,  a  dividing 
and  impassable  gulf. 

Our  bodily  senses  we  share  with  the 
33 


34  "Wo  TRctUQC 

brutes.  Some  brutes  excel  us  in  quick- 
ness of  sense.  They  have  the  rudi- 
ments, but  the  rudiments  only,  of  our 
emotions  and  affections.  The  mother 
bird  loves  her  offspring,  but  only  until 
they  are  fledged.  The  dog  is  attached 
to  the  master  who  feeds  him,  commands 
him,  and  if  he  offends  whips  him;  but 
without  respect  to  that  master's  personal 
character  or  deserts.  He  is  as  much 
attached  to  Bill  Sykes  as  he  would  be 
to  the  best  of  men.  The  workings  of 
what  we  call  instinct  in  beavers,  bees, 
and  ants  are  marvellous  and  seem  in 
some  ways  almost  to  outstrip  humanity, 
but  they  are  not,  like  humanity,  pro- 
gressive. The  ant  and  the  bee  of 
thousands  of  years  ago  are  the  ant  and 
the  bee  of  the  present  day.  The  bee  is 
not  even  taught  by  experience  that  her 
honey  will  be  taken  again  next  year. 


3But  in  ^rutb  35 

Still  less  is  it  possible  to  detect  anything 
like  moral  aspiration  or  effort  at  im- 
proving the  community  in  a  moral  way. 
Beavers  are  wonderfully  co-operative, 
but  they  have  shown  no  tendency  to 
establish  a  church. 

Of  the  science  of  ethics  the  founda- 
tion surely  is  our  sense  of  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong,  and  of  our 
obligation  to  choose  the  right  and  avoid 
the  wrong  for  our  own  sake  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  society  of  which  we  are 
members  and  the  character  of  which  re- 
acts upon  ourselves.  This  sense  seems 
to  me  to  be  authoritative,  whatever 
its  origin  may  be.  Different  concep- 
tions of  right  and  wrong  may  to  some 
extent  prevail  under  different  circum- 
stances, national  or  of  other  kinds, 
giving  room  for  different  ethical  sys- 
tems, as  a  comparison  of  the  ethics  of 


36  flo  "Refuge 

the  Gospel  with  those  of  Aristotle  shows. 
Still,  there  is  always  the  sense  of  the 
difiference  between  right  and  wrong 
and  of  the  necessity,  individual  and 
social,  of  embracing  the  first  and  eschew- 
ing the  second.  If  the  Christian  system 
is  found  by  experience  to  show  itself 
essentially  superior  to  all  other  systems 
and  to  satisfy  individually  and  socially, 
it  is  supreme,  and  is  presumably  the 
dictate  of  the  author  of  our  being,  if  an 
author  of  our  being  there  is. 

The  necessarian  theory,  which  in  this 
connection  is  still  advanced  or  implied, 
largely  accepted  as  it  has  been,  I  cannot 
help  thinking  is  really  traceable  to  an 
oversight.  If  in  action  there  were  only 
one  factor,  that  is  to  say,  the  motive, 
the  action  would  seem  to  be  necessary 
and  to  be  traceable  in  its  origin  appar- 
ently back  to  the  nebula.     But  surely 


3But  in  ttcutb  37 

there  are  two  factors,  the  motive  and 
the  volition.  Of  the  second  factor  in 
actions  which  are  matters  of  course 
we  are  not  conscious;  where  there  is 
a  conflict  of  motives  or  hesitation  of 
any  kind,  we  are.  Huxley  at  one  time 
held  that  man  was  an  automaton.  I 
believe  my  illustrious  friend  afterwards 
receded  from  that  position.  Yet  on 
the  necessarian  theory  automatons  we 
must  apparently  be. 


IV 
Ube  Ximit  of  Bvolutlon 

YOUR  last  correspondent  on  the 
subject  of  my  letters  treats  the 
question  lightly.  Perhaps  he  is  young, 
enjoying  the  morning  of  life  and  think- 
ing little  of  its  close.  On  the  mind 
of  a  student  of  history  is  deeply  im- 
pressed the  sadness  of  its  page;  the 
record  of  infinite  misery  and  suffering 
as  well  as  depravity,  all  apparently  to 
no  purpose  if  the  end  is  to  be  a  physical 
catastrophe.  Comtism,  while  it  bids  us 
devote  and  sacrifice  ourselves  to  the  fu- 
ture of  humanity,  can  apparently  hold 

out  nothing  more. 

38 


IWo  TRefuge  but  in  ^Trutb  39 

I  accept  evolution,  if  it  is  the  verdict 
of  science  as  to  the  origin  of  physical 
species,  the  human  species  included; 
though  it  certainly  seems  strange  that, 
the  chances  being  so  numerous  as  they 
are,  no  distinct  case  of  evolution  should 
have  taken  place  within  our  ken.  But 
the  theory  apparently  does  not  pretend 
to  account  for  the  development  of  man's 
higher  nature.  That  there  is  a  gap  in 
the  continuity  of  development  or  any 
supernatural  intervention  has  never 
been  suggested  by  me ;  but  it  does  appear 
that  there  is  an  ascent  such  as  consti- 
tutes an  essential  difference  and  calls  for 
other  than  physical  explanation. 

In  matter,  said  Tyndall,  is  the  po- 
tentiality of  all  life.  Matter  is  what 
we  discern  by  our  bodily  senses.  What 
assurance  have  we  that  the  account 
of   the   universe   and    of   our   relations 


40  mo  "Rcfufje 

to  it  given  us  by  our  bodily  senses  is 
exhaustive,  or  that  the  moral  conscience 
may  not  have  another  source? 

Apart  from  anything  more  distinctly 
spiritual,  where  do  we  get  the  faculty  of 
idealisation?  Is  it  traceable  to  physical 
sense  ? 

Unless  the  moral  conscience  has  a 
source  higher  than  mere  physical  evo- 
lution, what  is  to  deter  a  man  in  whom 
criminal  propensities  are  strong  from 
indulging  them  so  long  as  he  can  do 
so  with  impunity?  Eccelino  had  a 
lust  of  cruelty.  Was  he  wrong  in  in- 
dulging it,  so  long  as  he  had  the  power, 
which  he  might  have  had,  with  common 
prudence,  to  the  end  of  his  life? 

I  speak,  as  I  have  always  said,  from 
the  ranks;  and  I  am  not  presuming  to 
criticise  Darwin's  theory  as  an  explana- 
tion  of  the   origin   and   nature   of   the 


J3ut  in  (Icutb  4z 

physical  man.  But  if  the  theory  is  to 
be  carried  farther,  and  we  are  to  be 
told  that  man's  higher  attributes  and 
his  moral  conscience  have  no  source  or 
authority  other  than  physical  evolution, 
we  may  fairly  ask  to  see  our  way. 


V 
Bxplanations 

INTEREST  is  evidently  felt  in  ques- 
tions which  I  have  been  permitted 
to  treat  in  The  Sun,  and  after  the  notices 
and  the  queries  which  I  have  received 
there  are  points  on  which  I  should  like, 
if  you  will  allow  me,  to  set  myself  right. 
I.  The  leaning  to  orthodoxy  with 
which  I  am  gently  reproached  goes 
not  beyond  a  conviction,  drawn  from 
the  study  not  of  theology  but  of  history, 
that  of  all  the  types  of  character  hitherto 
produced  the  Christian  type,  founded 
on  a  belief  in  the  fatherhood  of  God 

and   the  brotherhood   of  man,  appears 
42 


•Wo  VctuQC  but  In  Cmtb  43 

to  be  the  happiest  and  the  best.  At 
its  birth  it  encountered  alien  and  hostile 
influences;  Alexandrian  theosophy,  Ori- 
ental asceticism,  Byzantine  imperialism. 
Later  it  encountered  the  worst  influence 
of  all,  that  of  theocracy  engendered  by 
the  ambition  of  the  monk  Hildebrand. 
Theocracy,  not  Catholicism  or  anything 
spiritual,  has  been  the  source  of  the 
crimes  of  the  Papacy;  of  the  Norman 
raids  upon  England  and  Ireland;  of 
civil  wars  kindled  by  Papal  intrigue  in 
Germany;  of  the  extermination  of  the 
Albigenses;  the  Inquisition,  Alva's  tri- 
bunal of  blood  in  the  Netherlands,  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  the  perse- 
cution of  the  Huguenots,  Jesuitism  and 
the  evils,  moral  and  political,  as  well  as 
religious,  which  Jesuitism  has  wrought. 
Through  all  this,  and  in  spite  of  it  all, 
Christian  character  has  preserved  itself, 


44  "Wo  TRetuge 

and  it  is  still  the  basis  of  the  world's 
best  civilisation.  Much  that  is  far  out- 
side the  Christian  creed  is  still  Christian 
in  character  and  traceable  to  a  Christian 
source. 

II.  I  fully  admit  that  society  can  be 
regulated  by  a  law  framed  for  mutual 
protection  and  general  well-being  with- 
out the  religious  conscience  or  other 
support  than  temporal  interest.  But 
if  individual  interest  or  passion  can 
break  this  law  with  impunity,  as  often 
they  can,  what  is  there  to  withhold 
them  from  doing  it?  What  is  the 
value  of  a  clean  breast? 

III.  The  fatherhood  of  God  seems 
to  be  implied  in  the  Christian  belief 
in  the  brotherhood  of  man.  By  that 
phrase  I  meant  to  characterise  Christ- 
ianity, not  to  embark  upon  the  question 
of  Theism.     It  does  not  seem  possible 


J8ut  in  ^rutb  45 

that  we  should  ever  have  direct  proof 
through  human  observation  and  reason- 
ing of  the  existence  of  deity  or  of  the 
divine  aim  and  will.  To  some  power, 
and  apparently  to  some  moral  power, 
we  must  owe  our  being.  We  can  hardly 
believe  that  creation  planned  itself  or 
that  the  germ  endowed  itself  with  life 
and  provision  for  development.  But 
what  can  have  been  the  aim  of  creation  ? 
What  can  have  led  to  the  production 
of  humanity,  with  all  the  evil  and 
suffering  which  Omniscience  must  have 
foreseen?  What  was  there  which  with- 
out such  a  process  mere  fiat,  so  far  as 
we  can  see,  could  not  produce?  The 
only  thing  that  presents  itself  is  char- 
acter, which  apparently  must  be  self- 
formed  and  developed  by  resistance 
to  evil.  We  have  had  plenty  of  "  evi- 
dences" in  the  manner  of  Paley  or  the 


46  flo  TRetuge  but  in  Crutb 

Bridgewater  Treatises,  met  by  sceptical 
argument  on  the  other  side;  but  has 
inquiry  yet  tried  to  fathom  the  mys- 
tery of  human  existence? 

IV.  One  thing  for  which  I  have 
earnestly  pleaded  is  the  abolition  of 
clerical  tests,  which  are  in  fact  renun- 
ciations of  absolute  loyalty  to  truth. 
Would  this  involve  the  dissolution  of 
the  Churches?  Nothing  surely  can  put 
an  end  to  the  need  of  spiritual  asso- 
ciation or  to  the  usefulness  of  the  pas- 
torate so  long  as  we  believe  in  spiritual 
life.  I  think  I  have  seen  the  most 
gifted  minds,  such  as  might  have  done 
us  the  highest  service  in  the  quest  of 
truth,  condemned  to  silence  by  the 
tests. 


VI 

Ube  Ummortalits  of  tbe  Soul 

THERE  appeared  the  other  day  in 
the  Washington  Herald  a  not- 
able letter  by  Mr.  Paul  Chamberlain 
on  Immortality.  It  took  the  same 
line  as  an  essay  on  the  same  question 
by  Mr.  Chamberlain's  late  father,  which 
I  had  read  in  manuscript.  Both  the 
letter  and  the  essay  are  on  the  negative 
side  of  the  question,  which,  in  the  essay 
at  least,  is  pronounced  the  happier  and 
better  view,  as  conducive  to  unselfish- 
ness. Unselfishness,  it  must  surely  be, 
of  a  supreme  kind.  Annihilation  is  not 
a  cheerful  word.  Bacon  has  a  highly 
47 


48  *Ko  "Refuge 

rhetorical  passage  flouting  the  fear  of 
death.  His  was  probably  not  a  very 
loving  nature,  nor  does  he  seem  to  have 
thought  of  the  parting  from  those  we 
love. 

The  life  of  the  late  Mr,  Chamberlain 
was  evidently  happy  as  well  as  good. 
That  of  his  son,  I  have  no  doubt,  is  the 
same.  But  of  the  lot  of  the  myriads 
whose  lives,  through  no  fault  of  their 
own,  are,  or  in  the  course  of  history 
have  been,  unhappy,  often  most  mis- 
erable, what  is  to  be  said?  If  for 
them  there  is  no  compensation,  can  we 
believe  that  benevolence  and  justice 
rule  the  world?  If  the  world  is  not 
ruled  by  benevolence  and  justice,  what 
is  our  ground  of  hope? 

The  negative  conclusion  rids  us,  it 
is  true,  of  the  Dantean  Hell,  which 
paints  the  deity  as  incomparably  worse 


JiSut  in  TTrutb  49 

than  the  worst  Italian  tyrant,  and,  as 
it  is  to  be  everlasting,  concedes  the 
final  victory  to  evil. 

We  discard  all  ghost  stories  and 
spiritualist  apparitions  as  at  most  signs 
of  a  general  craving.  We  resign  all 
reasoning  like  that  of  Butler,  who 
describes  the  soul  as  "indiscerptible," 
assuming  that  it  exists  separately  from 
the  body.  Nor  can  we  be  said  to  have 
anything  that  bears  the  character  of 
Revelation.  That  the  Founder  of  Christ- 
ianity looked  for  a  future  life,  with  its 
rewards  and  punishments,  is  evident. 
But  he  brought  no  special  message, 
lifted  not  the  curtain  of  mystery,  did 
nothing  to  clear  our  minds  upon  the 
subject.  His  apologue  of  Dives  and 
Lazarus  shows  that  to  him  as  to  us 
the  other  world  was  a  realm  of  the 
imagination. 


50  flo  IRefugc 

Is  there  anything  in  man  not  physical, 
or  apparently  explained  and  limited 
by  the  transient  conditions  and  neces- 
sities of  his  present  state,  anything 
which  gives  an  inkling  of  immortality? 
Our  utilitarian  morality  is  the  offspring 
and  adjunct  of  our  condition  here.  But 
is  there  not  an  aspiration  to  character 
which  points  to  something  more  spirit- 
ual and  higher  than  conformity  to  the 
utilitarian  code?  Heroism  and  self-sac- 
rifice are  not  utilitarian. 

We  can  hardly  allow  the  Investiga- 
tion to  be  closed  by  the  mere  mention 
of  the  talismanic  formulary  Evolution. 
There  may  be  something  still  to  be 
said  on  that  subject.  Evolution  can- 
not have  evolved  itself,  nor  does  it 
seem  capable  of  infallible  demonstration. 
It  no  doubt  postulates  vast  spaces  of 
time    for    its    action.     But    within    the 


3But  tn  tlrutb  51 

space  of  time  of  which  we  in  any  way 
have  knowledge,  apparently  no  case 
of  spontaneous  evolution  has  taken 
place.  Rudimentary  likeness  between 
the  frame  of  the  ape  and  that  of  man 
seems  hardly  in  itself  a  proof  of  the 
generation  of  man  from  the  ape. 

On  no  subject,  however,  does  one 
who  is  not  a  man  of  science  or  a  phi- 
losopher feel  more  intensely  his  de- 
ficiency, and  his  need  of  having  his 
paths  lighted  by  the  perfectly  free 
while  reverent  inquiry,  to  pray  for 
which  has  been  the  object  of  these 
letters. 


VII 

Us  tbere  to  be  a  IRevolution  in 
Btbics? 

A  REVOLUTION  in  theology  and  in 
our  conception  of  the  government 
of  the  universe  such  as  we  are  under- 
going is  sure  to  draw  with  it  a  revo- 
lutionary movement  in  ethics.  There 
lies  before  me  a  review  article  giving 
an  account  of  a  number  of  books  on 
ethics  which  are  widely  at  variance, 
it  appears,  with  the  ethics  of  Christ- 
ianity. The  general  tendency  of  the 
authors  seems  to  be  to  reject  alto- 
gether the  Christian  type  of  character 

as  artificial  and  weak,   and  to  aim  at 
52 


t\o  IRefuge  but  in  Crutb  53 

substituting  for  it  something  more 
robust  and,  it  is  assumed,  more  in 
accordance  with  nature.  One  theorist 
is  represented  as  regarding  humanity 
in  its  present  form  only  as  transient 
material  out  of  which  is  to  be  wrought 
the  "Superman."  In  what  respect,  so 
far  as  our  conceptions  extend,  has 
Christian  ethic  failed?  It  has  given 
birth  to  the  patriot  as  well  as  to  the 
martyr,  to  the  virtues  of  the  softer 
as  well  as  to  those  of  the  stronger  sex. 
Communities  which  have  kept  its  rules, 
as  well  as  individuals,  have  been  happy. 
The  Christian  ideal  of  character  and 
life  went  essentially  unchanged  through 
the  violence  of  the  Middle  Ages  and 
the  vices  of  the  Papacy.  It  was  some- 
what perverted  by  asceticism;  but  it 
was  radically  the  same  character  in 
Anselm  or  in  St.  Louis,  as  it  is  in  their 


54  "Ko  "Refufle  but  in  Q;rutb 

counterparts  now.  Nor  does  it  seem 
to  lose  by  renunciation  of  theological 
dogma.  The  moral  principles  and  as- 
pirations of  good  freethinkers  or  Posi- 
tivists  remain  still  essentially  Christian. 
The  ethical  ideal  which  is  now  being 
set  up  against  the  Christian  apparently 
is  that  of  the  Greeks.  In  literature 
and  art  Greece,  or  rather  Athens,  or, 
to  speak  still  more  correctly,  a  limited 
number  of  free  citizens  in  Athens,  was 
pre-eminent;  but  its  pre-eminence,  if 
we  may  trust  its  own  moralists,  hardly 
extended  to  morals. 


VIII 

TTbe  6o&  of  tbe  JBMc 

THERE  is  a  controversy  in  a  branch 
of  the  Methodist  Church  on  the 
subject  of  the  Old  Testament,  appar- 
ently raising  the  practical  question 
whether  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  rightly  bound  up  together 
as  parts  of  the  same  Revelation,  though 
differing  in  time,  and  together  making 
up  the  Christian  Bible. 

Genesis,  with  its  stories  of  the  six 
days  of  creation,  of  the  temptation  of 
Eve  by  the  serpent,  and  the  sentence 
passed  on  the  tempter;  of  God  walking 
in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day;  of 
55 


56  "Ro  IRefuge 

the  universal  deluge,  and  inclusion  of 
all  the  animals  in  the  ark;  of  the  loves 
of  the  angels;  of  the  Tower  of  Babel  scal- 
ing heaven,  and  the  deity  coming  down 
to  arrest  it ;  of  the  long-lived  patriarchs, 
may  it  is  presumed  be  set  down  as  a 
work  of  imagination,  however  superior 
to  other  primitive  cosmogonies  it  may 
be. 

We  do  not  reach  anything  like  history 
before  Exodus.  We  are  then  in  the 
tribal  era.  Israel,  like  other  tribes, 
has  its  tribal  god,  Jehovah,  to  whom 
the  people  of  his  tribe  owe  the  same 
religious  loyalty  which  the  people  of 
other  tribes  owe  their  tribal  deities, 
though  unquestionably  the  deity  of 
Israel  is  superior  to  the  deities  as  the 
law  and  institutions  of  Israel  are  su- 
perior to  the  laws  and  institutions  of 
other  nations.     The  Jew  recognises  the 


JBut  (n  G^rutb  57 

existence  of  other  deities,  and  often 
apostatises  to  them,  attracted  by  the 
more  voluptuous  character  of  their 
worship.  Thus  does  Solomon,  the  best 
mind  of  Israel.  To  Chemosh,  the  tribal 
god  of  the  Ammonites,  is  ascribed  the 
same  power  of  giving  possessions  to  his 
tribe  that  Jehovah  has  of  giving  pos- 
sessions to  Israel. 

The  deity  of  the  New  Testament  is 
universal.  He  sends  forth  his  spiritual 
missionaries  to  convert  all  nations. 
The  deity  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
tribal;  he  sends  forth  his  armies  to 
dispossess  and  exterminate  the  people 
who  serve  other  tribal  gods,  and  who 
are  massacred,  as  we  are  repeatedly  and 
exultingly  told  man,  woman,  and  child. 
He  approves  the  treachery  of  Rahab 
the  harlot  betraying  her  country  to 
his  own  people.     His  chronicler  records 


S8  IWo  IRetuge 

with  complacency  David's  act  in  tor- 
turing to  death  the  people  of  conquered 
cities.  Christian  bigotry  read  evil  les- 
sons in  these  pages. 

The  deity  of  the  New  Testament  is 
spiritual.  The  deity  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment seems  almost  material.  He  is 
visible;  he  moves  with  his  host;  he 
comes  to  wrestle  in  person  with  the 
obstinacy  of  Pharaoh.  He  takes  part 
in  a  battle,  flinging  down  great  hail- 
stones from  heaven.  He  seems  to  have 
an  almost  material  interest  in  the 
sacrifice.  He  is  ever  at  hand  to  confer 
with  the  leaders  of  his  tribe. 

About  a  future  state  the  Old  Testa- 
ment has  nothing  beyond  a  vague  allu- 
sion to  Sheol,  an  underworld,  perhaps 
the  burial  ground  of  the  tribe,  from 
which  there  was  no  return.  Job,  as 
the   reward   of   his  patience,   gets,   not 


JSut  (n  ZTrutb  S9 

heaven,  but  the  restoration  of  his 
wealth. 

Of  the  Trinitarian  doctrine  there  is 
no  inkling  in  the  Old  Testament.  The 
deity  who  walks  in  the  Garden  of  Eden 
is  evidently  sole. 

In  the  New  Testament  there  are 
appeals  to  what  is  supposed  to  be  pro- 
phetic language  in  the  Old;  but  they 
will  be  found,  it  is  believed,  to  be  too 
loose  to  be  accepted  as  definite  predic- 
tion. "Nazarite"  is  cited  as  "Naza- 
rene. " 

Between  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  there  are  four  centuries  fraught 
with  events  which  must  have  had  very 
great  influence  on  the  character  and 
ideas  of  the  people.  Perhaps  a  change 
begins  to  be  seen  in  the  latest  books 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

It  is  needless  to  descant  on  the  value 


6o  iwo  IReluge  but  in  Crutb 

of  the  Old  Testament  as  a  part  of  the 
archives  of  humanity,  or  on  the  civilised 
and  beneficent  character,  wonderful  for 
the  age,  of  much  of  the  Hebrew  law  and 
institutions.  It  is  needless  to  descant 
on  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  the 
Psalms.  Inspiration,  natural  if  not  su- 
pernatural, is  here. 

Miracle  apparently  must  go.  So  ap- 
parently must  dogma,  which  reaches 
its  climax  in  the  Athanasian  Creed. 
Divested  of  miracle  and  dogma,  can 
Christendom,  moral,  social,  and  spiritual, 
live?  That  is  the  absorbing  question 
of  the  hour. 

For  these  controversies  we  must  be 
prepared  after  so  rapid  and  momentous 
an  advance  of  knowledge  and  thought. 
Let  us  hope  that  they  will  not  be  allowed 
to  rend  the  moral  and  social  body  of 
Christendom. 


IX 

Conclusion 

FAITH'S  legend  of  the  fatal  Apple, 
the  tempter-Serpent,  and  the  Fall 
of  Man,  revived  after  untold  centuries 
and  the  passing  of  myriads  of  lives, 
with  belief  in  the  Incarnation,  the 
Redemption,  and  the  Trinity,  and  with 
the  Trinitarian  creeds,  is  apparently 
passing  away.  It  leaves  unimpaired 
the  character  and  teachings  of  Christ, 
with  such  natural  theology  as  may  have 
been  evoked.  It  leaves  unimpaired  the 
moral  and  social  Christendom,  with 
whatever  of  the  spiritual  is  real.     To 

save    Christendom,    moral,    social,    and 
6l 


62  mo  IRetuge 

spiritual,  from  dissolution,  if  this  can 
be  done  without  renunciation  of  truth, 
is  surely  a  vital  object. 

The  question  of  a  future  life,  which 
perhaps  with  most  of  us  is  the  question 
of  chief  interest,  not  only  for  the  in- 
dividual man  but  for  society,  remains 
to  be  settled  by  examination  of  hu- 
manity. It  could  hardly  be  said  to  be 
happily  settled,  if  settled  at  all,  by  a 
sharp  division  of  mankind,  in  whose 
characters  there  is  no  sharp  dividing 
line,  into  the  few  who  are  to  be  called 
to  bliss  and  the  many  who  are  to  be 
consigned  to  outer  darkness,  weeping, 
and  gnashing  of  teeth. 

We  have  hitherto  been  in  a  world 
apart,  the  all-important  scene  of  the 
Fall  and  the  Redemption.  Our  planet 
now  becomes  again  a  member  of  a 
universe,  the    authorship  and    plan    of 


JBut  in  XTrutb  63 

which  must  be  studied  to  learn,  if 
possible,  what  we  are  and  what  we  are 
to  be.  That  we  may  be  a  part  of  a 
universal  plan,  moving  onward  with  it 
to  some  divine  end,  and  seconding  it  by 
well-doing,  is  an  hypothesis  which  seems 
favoured  by  the  moral  phenomena  and 
our  consciousness.  With  the  existence 
of  evil,  optimism  wrestles  in  vain. 
We  can  only  hope  that  it  will  prove 
to  have  been  the  hard  schoolmaster  and 
trainer  of  good.  At  all  events  there  is 
no  refuge  for  us  but  in  truth. 


Z\)c  1Rcli9iou0  Situation 


65 


THE  RELIGIOUS  SITUATION* 

(From  the  North  American  Review.) 

{EXPRESS  myself,"  says  Bishop 
Butler,  **  with  caution,  lest  I  should 
be  mistaken  to  vilify  reason,  which  is, 
indeed,  the  only  faculty  which  we  have 
to  judge  concerning  anything,  even 
revelation  itself;  or  be  misunderstood 
to  assert  that  a  supposed  revelation 
cannot  be  proved  false  from  internal 
characters."  "The  faculty  of  reason," 
he  says,  "is  the  candle  of  the  Lord 
within  us  against  vilifying  which  we 
must  be  very  cautious. " 

1  Copyright,  1908,  by    the  North   American    Review 
Publishing  Company. 

Copyright,  Canada,  1908,  by  Goldwin  Smith. 
67 


68  mo  TRefuge 

What  would  the  world  be  without 
religion?  That  is  the  dread  question 
which  seems  now  to  be  everywhere 
presenting  itself.  Would  even  the  social 
fabric  remain  unshaken?  Has  not  its 
stability  partly  depended  on  the  general 
belief  that  the  dispensation,  with  all 
its  inequalities,  was  the  ordinance  of 
the  Creator,  and  that  for  inequalities 
here  there  would  be  compensation 
hereafter?  The  belief  may  not  in  com- 
mon minds  have  been  very  present; 
but  it  would  seem  to  have  had  its  in- 
fluence. Apparently,  it  is  now  depart- 
ing. In  some  places  it  seems  tc  have 
fled.  Scepticism,  with  social  unrest, 
comes  in  its  room. 

What  is  now  the  position  of  the 
clergy?  Keepers  and  ministers  of 
truth,  as  they  are  understood  to  be, 
they  alone  are  debarred  by  ordination 


JSut  in  ^rutb  69 

vows  and  tests  from  the  free  quest  of 
truth.  They  are  ecclesiastically  bound 
not  only  to  hold,  but  to  teach  and 
preach,  as  divinely  revealed,  what  many 
of  them  must  feel  to  have  been  dis- 
proved or  to  have  become  doubtful. 
Their  uneasiness  is  shown  by  writings, 
such  as  Lux  Mundi  struggling  to  re- 
concile orthodoxy  with  free  thought. 
It  is  shown  by  a  growing  tendency  on 
the  part  of  pastors  to  slide  from  the 
office  of  spiritual  guide  into  that  of 
leader  of  philanthropic  effort  and  social 
reform.  It  is  seen,  perhaps,  even  in 
the  tendency  to  give  increased  promi- 
nence to  musical  attraction  in  the  ser- 
vice.    Sermons  grow  more  secular. 

Clerical  biographies,  such  as  that  of 
Jowett,  sometimes  reveal  private  mis- 
givings. The  writer  has  even  seen  the 
pastorate  of  a  large  parish  assumed  by 


70  Tlo  "Refuae 

one  who  in  private  society  was  an  evi- 
dent rationalist  and  must  have  satisfied 
his  conscience  by  promising  to  himself 
that  he  would  do  a  great  deal  of  social 
good.  There  is,  no  doubt,  practically 
more  latitude  than  there  was;  heresy 
trials  seem  to  have  ceased,  and  one 
of  the  writers  of  Essays  and  Reviews 
became,  without  serious  outcry,  Primate 
of  the  Church  of  England.  But  ordina- 
tion vows  remain;  so  does  the  perform- 
ance of  a  religious  service  which  includes 
the  repetition  of  creeds  and  forms  a 
practical  confession  of  faith.  Hollow 
profession  cannot  fail  to  impair  mental 
integrity,  or,  if  generally  suspected,  to 
kill  confidence  in  our  guides.  Read 
Canon  Farrar's  Life  of  Christ  and  you 
will  see  to  what  shifts  orthodoxy  puts 
a  clerical  writer  who  was,  no  doubt,  a 
sincere  lover  of  truth. 


JBut  in  C^rutb  71 

The  religious  disturbance  shows  itself 
at  the  same  time  in  the  prevalence  of 
wild  superstitions,  such  as  Spiritualism, 
rising  out  of  the  grave  of  religious  faith, 
and  attesting  the  lingering  craving  for 
the  supernatural,  somewhat  like  the 
mysteries  of  Isis  after  the  fall  of  national 
religion  at  Rome. 

The  crisis  has  come  on  us  rather 
suddenly,  in  consequence  partly  of 
physical  discoveries.  Before  this  won- 
derful advance  of  science  and  criticism 
combined,  there  had  been  comparatively 
little  of  avowed,  still  less  of  popular, 
scepticism.  Rousseau  was  a  senti- 
mental theist ;  Voltaire  erected  a  church 
to  God.  This  vast  "  Modernism, "  as 
the  poor,  quaking  Pope  rather  happily 
calls  the  ascendancy  of  science  and 
criticism,  has  changed  all.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that,  now  as  on  some  former 


72  flo  IRefuge 

occasions,  the  range  of  discovery  may 
have  been  overrated  and  the  pendulum 
of  opinion  may  consequently  have 
swung  too  far.  Evolution,  apparently, 
has  still  a  wide  space  to  traverse,  even 
in  what  may  be  assumed  to  be  the 
material  sphere.  What  can  it  make  of 
the  marvellous  stores  of  memory  or  of 
the  apparently  boundless  play  of  the 
imagination,  which  by  its  working  in 
sleep,  sometimes  with  no  assignable 
materials  for  the  fancy,  seems  almost 
to  show  creative  power? 

Has  deity  directly  revealed  itself 
to  man?  It  has  if  the  Bible  is  in- 
spired. Otherwise,  apparently,  it  has 
not.  About  the  Koran  or  the  Zenda- 
vesta  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  speak. 
"  The  Bible  "  we  call  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New  bound  up  together,  as 
though  they  contained  the  two  halves  of 


JBut  In  ^rutb  73 

the  same  dispensation  and  the  moral 
ideal  of  both  were  the  same.  The  his- 
torical importance  of  the  Old  Testament 
can  hardly  be  overrated ;  nor  can  the  lit- 
erary grandeur  of  parts  of  it,  or  the  ad- 
vance made  in  social  character  and  in 
law.  When  in  connection  with  the  ques- 
tion of  American  slavery  attention  was 
specially  directed  to  the  social  law  of 
Moses,  no  careful  reader  could  fail  to 
be  greatly  struck  by  its  advanced 
humanity  and  civilisation.  Neverthe- 
less, the  morality  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  tribal,  while  that  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  universal.  The  tribal  char- 
acter of  the  Old  Testament  morality 
is  seen  in  the  destruction  of  the  first- 
born in  Egypt  in  order  to  force  Pharaoh 
to  let  the  Chosen  People  go;  in  the  in- 
vasion of  Canaan  and  the  slaughter 
of   the    Canaanites;   in   the   murder   of 


74  1^0  TRctnge 

Sisera;  in  the  approval  of  the  treason 
of  Rahab;  in  David's  putting  to  torture 
the  inhabitants  of  a  captured  city. 
The  attempt  to  reconcile  all  this  with 
universal  morality  by  styling  it  the 
course  of  " Evolution"  can  hardly  avail, 
since  the  spirit  of  tribal  separatism 
dominates  in  the  latest  books  of  the 
Old  Testament,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah, 
where  Israelites  are  not  only  forbidden 
for  the  future  to  marry  with  Gentiles, 
but  bidden  to  put  away  Gentile  wives. 
It  is  true  there  are  glimpses  of  a  uni- 
versal dominion  of  the  God  of  Israel, 
and  of  the  happiness  to  be  enjoyed  by 
all  nations  under  it.  Still,  Jehovah  is 
Israel's  God. 

Were  the  Old  Testament  a  divine 
revelation,  it  would  certainly  be  free 
from  error  concerning  the  works  of 
Deity,    which   plainly    it   is   not.     The 


JSut  (n  tTrutb  75 

narrative  in  Genesis  of  creation,  com- 
pared with  other  primitive  cosmogonies, 
is  rational  as  well  as  sublime.  But  if 
Professor  Buckland  could  persuade  his 
hearers  he  could  not  persuade  himself. 

Largely  good  the  influence  of  the  Old 
Testament  has  no  doubt  been;  largely 
also  it  prepared  the  way  for  the  New. 
That  its  influence  has  been  wholly  good 
cannot  be  said.  It  has  furnished  fanati- 
cism with  aliment  and  excuse.  It  has 
found  mottoes  for  the  black  flag  of  re- 
ligious war. 

Is  it  possible  to  believe,  in  face  of 
doubtful  authenticity,  contradictions  as 
to  fact,  and  traces  of  local  superstition, 
that  the  New  Testament  any  more  than 
the  Old  was  dictated  by  deity?  In- 
spired by  the  creative  power,  in  common 
with  the  other  works  of  creative  bene- 
ficence, as  a  part  of  the  general  plan, 


76  mo  IRefuge 

the  New  Testament  may  have  been. 
Its  morality  is  not  tribal,  but  universal. 
"  God  is  a  Spirit ;  and  they  that  worship 
him  must  worship  him  in  spirit  and 
in  truth";  this  beside  the  well  of 
Samaria  by  the  Founder  himself  is 
proclaimed.  If  there  is  any  privilege 
it  is  in  favour  not  of  race,  but  of  class, 
the  class  being  the  poor,  whose  poverty 
seems  counted  to  them  as  virtue,  per- 
haps rather  to  the  disparagement  of 
active  goodness. 

Had  the  New  Testament  been  divinely 
inspired,  would  not  its  authority  have 
been  clearly  attested?  Would  not  the 
authorship  of  its  books  have  been  made 
known?  Would  the  slightest  error  or 
self-contradiction  have  been  allowed  to 
appear  in  it?  What  is  the  fact?  The 
authenticity  of  a  large  portion  of  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul  seems  admitted  by 


asut  in  Q:tutb  77 

critics;  of  other  books  of  the  New 
Testament  the  authorship  is  regarded 
as  doubtful.  The  three  Synoptic  Gos- 
pels have  a  large  element  common  to 
them  all,  and  are  evidently  grafts  upon 
a  single  document  which  is  lost,  and 
which  the  critics  generally  seem  inclined 
to  place  not  earlier  than  the  latter  part 
of  the  first  century.  The  Synoptics  all 
tell  us  that  when  Jesus  expired  the 
veil  of  the  Temple  was  rent.  One 
adds  that  there  was  preternatural  dark- 
ness; another  that  the  earth  quaked,  that 
the  rocks  were  rent,  that  the  graves 
opened,  and  many  bodies  of  the  saints 
which  slept  arose,  came  out  of  the 
graves  after  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
went  into  the  holy  city,  and  appeared 
to  many.  Such  portents  plainly  must 
have  produced  an  immense  sensation; 
such  a  sensation,  it  may  be  assumed. 


7S  iRo  TRctnge 

as  would  have  brought  scepticism  to  its 
knees.  This  surely  must  be  legendary, 
and  the  legend  must  have  had  time  to 
grow. 

Though  grafts  on  the  same  original 
stock,  the  Gospels  are  often  at  variance 
with  each  other;  as  in  the  case  of  the 
genealogy  of  Jesus,  upon  which  the  har- 
monists labour  in  vain;  in  that  of  the 
marvels  attending  his  birth;  in  that  of 
his  Last  Supper;  in  that  of  the  Resur- 
rection, which  again  baffles  the  skill  of 
the  harmonists.  Here,  surely,  is  proof 
that  the  pens  of  the  narrators  were  not 
guided  by  Omniscience. 

Concerning  the  miracles  of  the  casting 
out  of  devils  generally,  and  in  particular 
of  the  casting  out  of  a  legion  of  devils 
into  a  herd  of  two  thousand  swine  at 
Gadara,  what  is  to  be  said?  Are  these 
not  clearly  cases  of  human  imagination 


JBut  in  ^rutb  79 

set  at  work  by  a  Jewish  superstition? 
Is  it  possible  that  they  should  have 
had  a  place  in  a  divine  narrative  of  the 
life  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world?  The 
Fourth  Gospel  omits  them.  Orthodoxy 
would  fain  persuade  itself  that  this  was 
to  avoid  unnecessary  repetition. 

Satan  from  the  top  of  a  mountain 
shows  Jesus  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth.  This  seems  to  imply  belief  that 
the  earth  is  a  plane.  The  movement 
of  the  star  of  the  Nativity  seems  to 
imply  belief  in  the  rotation  of  the 
heavens. 

About  the  authorship  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  and,  consequently,  about  its 
title  to  belief,  there  has  been  endless 
controversy  among  the  learned.  But 
there  are  pretty  plain  indications  in  the 
shape  of  the  omission  of  demoniac 
miracles  and  some  lack  of  local  know- 


8o  iRo  iRefuge 

ledge,  that  it  is  not  the  work  of  a 
Palestinian  Jew.  Opening  with  a  refer- 
ence to  the  Logos,  it  strikes  the  key 
of  Alexandrian  philosophy.  It  is,  in- 
deed, rather  theological  than  historical, 
so  that  it  has  been  not  inaptly  com- 
pared to  the  Platonic,  in  contrast  to 
the  Xenophontic,  account  of  Socrates. 
The  theology  seems  like  that  of  a  post- 
evangelical  era.  Martineau's  conclu- 
sion is  that  "the  only  Gospel  which  is 
composed  and  not  merely  compiled  and 
edited,  and  for  which,  therefore,  a  sin- 
gle writer  is  responsible,  has  its  birth- 
day in  the  middle  of  the  second  century, 
and  is  not  the  work  of  a  witness  at  all.  " 
Historically,  this  Gospel  is  at  variance 
with  the  others  in  its  narrative  of  the 
Last  Supper.  "The  incidents,"  says 
the  highly  orthodox  Speaker's  Com- 
mentary,   "are    parallel    with    sections 


3But  (n  ^rutb  8i 

of  the  Synoptic  Gospels;  but  there  are 
very  few  points  of  actual  correspond- 
ence in  detail  between  the  narratives 
of  the  Synoptists  and  of  St.  John." 
There  appears  to  have  been  much 
disputation  among  critics  and  com- 
mentators, but  no  room  for  disputation 
surely  would  have  been  left  concerning 
narratives,  equally  authentic  and  in- 
spired, of  a  momentous  crisis  in  the  life 
of  the  Saviour. 

"At  this  point,  that  is  to  say  the 
beginning  of  the  Galilean  ministry,  we 
are  again  met  by  difficulties  in  the 
chronology,  which  are  not  only  various, 
but  to  the  certain  solution  of  which 
there  appears  to  be  no  clue.  If  we 
follow  exclusively  the  order  given  by 
one  Evangelist  we  appear  to  run  counter 
to  the  scattered  indications  which  may 
be   found  in   another.     That  it  should 


82  "Mo  TRefuge 

be  so  will  cause  no  difficulty  to  the 
candid  mind.  The  Evangelists  do  not 
profess  to  be  guided  by  chronological 
sequences."  So  writes  Dean  Farrar 
in  despair.  Is  it  likely  that  such  con- 
fusion would  be  found  in  a  divine 
revelation?  Would  not  the  narratives 
have  been  as  well  arranged  and  clear 
as,  by  the  admission  of  orthodoxy,  they 
are  the  reverse?  Would  the  names  of 
the  authors  of  the  Gospels,  their  war- 
rants and  the  sources  of  their  informa- 
tion, have  been  withheld?  Providence 
surely  was  not  there. 

If  there  was  a  miraculous  revelation 
on  which  salvation  depended,  why 
was  it  not  universal?  Why  has  it  all 
this  time  been  withheld  from  nations 
even  more  in  need  of  it  than  those  to 
whom  it  was  given  ?  Are  we  to  suppose 
that    the    salvation    of    these    myriads 


38ut  \n  Crutb  83 

was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  their 
Creator,  or  that  Heaven  preferred  the 
slow  and  precarious  working  of  the 
missionary  to  the  instantaneous  action 
of  its  own  fiat?  This  is  the  question 
which  scepticism  asks,  and  which  the 
great  author  of  the  Analogy  of  Religion 
fails  to  answer. 

What  did  Jesus  think  of  himself  and 
his  mission,  and  of  his  relation  to  deity? 
This  it  seems  impossible  without  more 
authentic  records  clearly  to  decide. 
The  Gospel  of  St.  John,  which  is  the 
most  theological,  would  appear  to  be 
the  least  trustworthy  of  the  four.  Its 
author,  apparently,  sees  its  subject 
through  a  theosophic  medium  of  his 
own.  The  idea  of  the  teacher  in  the 
mind  of  the  disciples  would  naturally 
rise  with  his  ascendancy;  so,  perhaps, 
would  his  own  idea.     If  Jesus  is  rightly 


84  "Ko  TRetuge 

reported,  he  believed  himself  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  exalted  to  union  and  partici- 
pation in  spiritual  dominion  with  the 
Father,  and  destined  together  with  the 
Father  to  judge  the  world.  But,  in 
his  mortal  hour  of  anguish  in  Gethsem- 
ane,  he  prays  to  the  Father  to  let  the 
cup  pass  from  him;  an  act  hardly  con- 
sistent with  the  doctrines  of  the  Atha- 
nasian  Creed.  In  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  and  judgment  after  death  he 
plainly  believes.  But  he  does  not  sub- 
stantiate the  belief  by  any  explanation 
of  the  mode  of  survival ;  nor,  in  separat- 
ing the  two  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats, 
does  he  say  how  mixed  characters  are  to 
be  treated.  Tribalism  seems  slightly 
to  cling  to  his  conception  of  the  just 
gathered  in  Abraham's  bosom.  Of  his 
apologue  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  the  last 
part  appears   to  show  that  the  world 


JBut  in  ^rutb  85 

beyond  the  grave  was  to  him  a  realm 
of  the  imagination. 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  would  ap- 
pear, by  the  strong  impress  of  charac- 
ter it  bears,  to  have  special  claims  to 
authenticity.  So  may  the  Parables 
habitually  employed  as  instruments  of 
teaching  and  wearing  apparently  the 
stamp  of  a  single  imagination. 

That  with  Jesus  of  Nazareth  there 
came  into  the  world,  and  by  his  example 
and  teaching  was  introduced  and  pro- 
pagated a  moral  ideal  which,  embodied 
in  Christendom,  and  surviving  through 
all  these  centuries  the  action  of  hostile 
forces  the  most  powerful,  not  only  from 
without,  but  from  within,  has  uplifted, 
purified,  and  blessed  humanity  is  an 
historical  fact.  "With  the  civilisation 
of  Christendom  no  other  civilisation 
can  compare.     But  we  have  been  accus- 


86  ViO  TRCtUQC 

tomed  to  believe  that  there  was  a 
miraculous  revelation  of  the  deity. 
A  revelation  of  the  deity,  though 
not  miraculous,  Christianity  may  be 
believed  to  have  been. 

Revelation,  direct  and  assured,  of  the 
nature,  will,  designs,  or  relation  to  us 
of  the  deity  through  the  Bible  or  in  any 
other  way  we  cannot  be  truly  said  to 
have.  All  that  we  apparently  can  be 
said  to  have,  besides  the  religious  in- 
stinct in  ourselves,  is  the  evidence  of 
beneficent  design  in  the  universe;  bal- 
anced, we  must  sadly  admit,  by  much 
that  with  our  present  imperfect  know- 
ledge appears  to  us  at  variance  with 
beneficence:  by  plagues,  earthquakes, 
famines, torturing  diseases,  infant  deaths ; 
by  the  sufferings  of  animals  preyed  on 
by  other  animals  or  breeding  beyond 
the  means  of  subsistence;  by  inevitable 


JSut  in  ^cutb  87 

accidents  of  all  kinds;  by  the  Tower 
of  Siloam  everywhere  falling  on  the 
just  as  well  as  on  the  sinner.  There 
may  be  a  key,  there  may  be  a  plan, 
disciplinary  or  of  some  other  kind,  and 
in  the  end  the  mystery  may  be  solved. 
At  present  there  seems  to  be  no  key 
other  than  that  which  may  be  sug- 
gested by  the  connection  of  effort  with 
virtue  and  the  progress  of  a  collective 
humanity. 

At  the  same  time,  we  may  apparently 
dismiss  belief  in  a  great  personal  power 
of  evil  and  in  his  realm  of  everlasting 
torture.  The  independent  origin  of 
such  a  power  of  evil  is  unthinkable; 
so  is  the  struggle  between  the  two 
powers  and  its  end.  There  is  no  abso- 
lutely distinct  line  between  good  and 
evil.  The  shades  of  character  are  num- 
berless. 


88  'Mo  "Kcfuge 

Another  great  change,  rather  of  im- 
pression than  of  conviction,  has  been 
creeping  over  the  religious  scene.  We 
have  hitherto,  largely,  perhaps,  under 
the  influence  of  the  Bible,  been  fancying 
rather  than  thinking  that  this  little 
earth  of  ours  was  the  centre  of  all  things, 
the  special  object  of  interest  to  the 
Creator;  and  that  the  grand  drama  of 
existence  was  that  enacted  on  this 
terrestrial  stage  and  culminating  in 
Redemption.  Astronomical  science  is 
now  making  us  distinctly  feel  that  this 
world  is  only  one,  and,  if  magnitude 
is  to  be  the  measure,  very  far  from  the 
most  important,  of  myriads  of  worlds 
governed  by  the  same  physical  laws 
as  ours,  forming  a  system  of  which  ours 
is  a  member,  while  the  destiny  of  the 
whole  system  is  to  us  utterly  inscrutable ; 
proofs  of  the  most  sublime  and  glorious 


JBut  in  ^rutb  89 

order  presenting  themselves  on  the  one 
hand,  while  on  the  other  we  see  signs 
of  disorder  and  destruction,  errant 
bodies  such  as  comets  and  aerolites, 
a  moon  without  an  atmosphere,  the 
conflagration  of  a  star.  Whether  the 
whole  is  moving  towards  any  end  and, 
if  it  is,  what  that  end  is  to  be,  we  cannot 
hope  to  divine.  When  with  Infinity  we 
take  into  our  thought  Eternity,  past 
and  future,  if  in  Eternity  there  can  be 
said  to  be  past  or  future,  our  minds  are 
completely  overwhelmed. 

Is  belief  in  a  future  life  generally 
holding  its  ground?  My  friend,  the 
late  Mr.  Chamberlain,  was  by  no  means 
alone  in  resigning  it.  But  if  this  life 
is  all,  how  can  we  continue  to  hold  our 
faith  in  divine  justice?  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain, as  I  said  before,  was  evidently 
happy  as  well  as  good.     His  life,  though 


go  "Mo  IRcfugc 

short  and  regarded  by  him  as  ending 
in  the  grave,  was  to  him  so  much  gain, 
and  proved  beneficence  on  the  part  of 
the  Author  of  his  being.  But  if  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  theory  is  true,  what  is 
to  be  said  in  the  case  of  the  myriads  to 
whom  life  has  been  wretchedness,  end- 
ing perhaps  in  agony,  often  without 
the  slightest  responsibility  on  their 
part?  For  these  unhappy  ones  would 
it  be  well,  as  Mr.  Chamberlain  holds 
it  was  for  him,  that  there  should  be  no 
hereafter?  Is  their  being  brought  into 
existence  only  to  suffer  compatible 
with  our  faith  in  supreme  benevolence? 
Is  confidence  in  supreme  justice  com- 
patible with  the  conviction  that  the 
tyrant  and  the  tortured  victims  of  his 
tyranny,  alike,  repose  for  ever  in  the 
grave?  Such,  it  is  true,  was  the  belief 
of  the  Hebrew;  indication  of  any  other 


:S3ut  In  drutb  91 

belief,  at  all  events,  he  has  left  us  none, 
unless  it  be  a  faint  glimpse  of  Sheol. 
The  philosophy  of  Job  halts  accordingly. 
The  Hebrew  believed  that  he  would 
be  rewarded  or  punished  in  his  pos- 
terity. 

Positivism  tenders  us  endless  exist- 
ence as  particles  in  a  collective  human- 
ity, the  "colossal  man."  But  would 
there  be  much  satisfaction  in  existence 
when  individuality  and  personal  con- 
sciousness had  been  lost?  Would  the 
prospect  lead  the  ordinary  man  to  work 
and  suffer  for  generations  to  come,  at 
all  events,  for  any  beyond  the  circle 
of  the  immediate  objects  of  his  love? 
What  the  end  of  the  colossal  man  is  to 
be  seems  undetermined.  The  Positivist 
Church  has  produced  very  good  and 
beautiful  lives,  but  its  power  as  a 
religion    to    go    alone    would  be    more 


92  IRo  IRetuge 

clearly  seen  were  not  Christianity  at  its 
side. 

Is  there  or  is  there  not  after  all  some- 
thing in  human  nature  apparently  un- 
susceptible of  physical  explanation  and 
seeming  to  point  to  the  possibility  of 
a  higher  state  of  being?  Evolution 
may  ultimately  explain  our  general 
frame,  emotional  and  intellectual,  as 
well  as  physical.  It  may  in  time  ex- 
plain the  marvels  of  imagination  and 
memory.  It  may  explain  our  aesthetic 
nature  with  our  music  and  art.  It 
may  explain  even  our  social  and  political 
frame  and  our  habit  of  conformity  to 
law.  But  beyond  conformity  to  law, 
social  or  political,  is  there  not,  in  the 
highest  specimens  of  our  race  at  least, 
a  conception  of  an  ideal  of  character 
and  an  effort  to  rise  to  it  which  seem 
to  point  to  a  more  spiritual  sphere? 


J8ut  In  ^rutb  93 

The  solution,  extreme  old  age  cannot 
hope  to  see.  It  can  only  listen  to  the 
voice  within,  which  whispers  that  there 
will  be  mercy  for  those  who  love  mercy 
and  seek  truth. 


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